Author's note: Look I know how many FNL fans LURVE the whole "Tulie ship" thing and in a perfect world that stupid Matt Saracen would never have gotten his stuttering mangy paws on Julie, she'd have been swept off her feet by Tim "He's SO Dreamy When His Hair is In His Eyes!" Riggins blah, blah, blah and yes yes you can do anything and go anywhere you want with Fan Fiction, but I've never understood it and never gotten it. Which is a long way of writing that those of you who have latched onto this story hoping for some steamy 'Tim bones Julie in the back of his pickup truck on the land he bought at sunset while mourning doves coo and fly all around them,' action or storyline, NOT GONNA HAPPEN. To put it plainly, THIS IS NOT A TULIE STORY.

Five hours later.

Tami walked down the hall and stood by the dining room table. Eric was sitting on his throne, watching tape and occasionally making notes on a yellow legal pad. He glanced over. "Tim still asleep?"

"That boy is out cold." Tami frowned.

"What is it?"

"Do you really think this is a good idea?"

"Wha—it's a little late now to have second thoughts, he's already asleep in the guest room, and I am not gonna be the one who tells him he has to leave. You really think it's gonna be too hard for him to live up to the rules we set?"

"It's Tim Riggins. He's gotten by his entire life on his name and the fact that he was pretty good at football."

"And that's over. That was a whole other life. You pretty much said the same thing when you visited him in jail. Do I think he's gonna screw up a few times? I hope not, but I'm not gonna be surprised. But I do think he had the fear of God put in him by prison, more than he would ever tell anyone. And I hate to say this, but I like to think that same fear of going back there would bring him up short before he did anything stupid. Is this all about Tim or is it about Tim and Buddy?"

"Working in a bar and telling him he can't drink?"

"We didn't say he absolutely couldn't drink, we said we couldn't drink in this house. And that he's not going to be stumbling in drunk from a bar or from Buddy's. I'm sure he's gonna have a beer every once in a while he's working, but he will call and I'll go get him. Or Buddy will give him a ride. That aside, where is he gonna go if we make him leave? Dillon doesn't have a homeless shelter. He could buy a tent and sleeping bag and live out on his land. Look, it's gonna take hard work and I'm gonna have to yell at him a couple of times, but if you didn't believe in him and I didn't believe in him we wouldn't be where we are right now. We don't expect him to get a doctorate in anything, but you can be damn sure I'll be cheering and applauding when he walks across that stage and gets his bachelor's degree, no matter what it's in. And so will you." He looked at his watch. "You want me to go get the puppies?"

"No, I'll go. I think we'll have steak tonight, if you wouldn't mind manning the grill."

"You want me to mash some potatoes too?"

"That would be nice, and I don't know, maybe some corn, I think there's a box in the freezer."

"Should I put one on for Tim?"

"Yes, but if he doesn't wake up, let him sleep." Tami took two leases off the hook on the wall and swung her purse over her shoulder. "I'll be back in about half an hour, okay sugar?"

"Yes, ma'am." Eric winked at her as she left.

Half an hour later Eric was out on the deck occasionally turning the steaks on the grill with a pair of tongs. He heard the front door close, followed by whining and yipping, so he put the tongs down and opened the screen door and bent over to greet the two dogs that ran toward him. The smaller of the two gave him a cursory lick, then turned and sniffed the air, barked and then ran back inside. "Payton, where the hell are you going?" Eric patted Jordan who whined and kissed Eric's face, Eric walked inside to find Tami standing by the door to the guest room. He peered inside and saw Payton curled up on the bed next to the lump under the covers that was Tim Riggins. Tami closed the door and walked out to the deck with Eric and Jordan following. Eric was grumbling as he picked up the tongs and jabbed at the steaks.

"What is it sugar?"

"Nothing."

"C'mon now."

"I don't, why is Payton in love with Tim Riggins?"

Tami laughed. "She isn't in love with him."

"Really? She was out here for about ten seconds and then she caught his scent and whoosh, next thing I know she's snuggled up next to him on the bed. Whenever he comes over she turns into this whining, moaning, squealing, panting ball of fur. She's never been that affectionate towards me."

"Seriously? The same dog who falls asleep in your lap every night whole you watch game tape and whines and cries if you put her down? You're jealous."

"I am not. Whenever he's come over she's I don't know fawning all over him and following him everywhere and actually whining for him to pick her up and let sit on his lap. She's never done that with me."

"Well, dogs are pretty empathetic; you remember how they wouldn't leave Julie's side after Matt left. I'm not saying they have ESP but maybe we give off different odors depending on our moods and dogs smell that. Whatever it is, I'm not going to get her off the bed. Tim needs some rest and some comfort and some love. And I love you and Jordan loves you, right Jordan?"

Jordan didn't even stop gnawing his favorite nylabone, just wagged his tail three times. Eric turned back to the grill and muttered under his breath. Tami hugged him and kissed him on the cheek.

The next morning

Eric walked into the kitchen and saw Tim by the stove looking at a frying pan, which held an omelet. Payton was sitting by his side looking at Tim with puppy dog eyes. "Morning."

"Morning coach, the paper's on the counter. You want me to make you one?"

Eric chewed his lip for a second. "Yeah. Please. Just cheese though, not peppers or meat. And maybe make it extra-large, we'll give the puppies a treat for breakfast."

Tami came bustling in pushing her hair behind her ears. "Morning Tim, did you sleep all night?"

"Yes ma'am, I'm sorry that I was so tired and missed dinner."

Tami waved her hand. "That's alright. You needed that sleep. Was Payton there when you woke up?"

Tim smiled. "Yes ma'am."

"She's pretty sweet on you."

Tim shrugged. " I guess. Better her than Julie." Tim winced and glanced at Eric. "Sorry Coach."

"That's a'ight, that was a misunderstanding and Julie's got –college stuff going on. What're your plans for today?"

"Buddy said he'd give me a call when he wanted me to start working, but I guess you talked him into giving me a couple of days to acclimate." Tim glanced at Tami. "Figured I'd get started on my intern position at East Dillon."

Eric looked from Tami to Tim. "Well, we appreciate the initiative, but we thought it'd be best if we let you rest for a couple days. You can sit Gracie and the puppies and look over the catalog from Dillon College, after dinner we'll talk about enrolling and classes and stuff. I know you want to make a fresh start and that's great, but let's ease into it."

"Are you sure? I'm ready to get out there and mow or line the field."

"I was planning on having you do that Thursday after practice, Coach Straub and I'll help out."

"Okay. Do you want me to make dinner?"

Eric pursed his lips and looked at Tami. "Spaghetti? I can pick up some bread after practice if you," he nodded at Tami, "remind me. Unlike chili I don't like spaghetti sauce to be very spicy."

Tim smiled. "Fair enough."

Later that afternoon.

Gracie was taking a nap and Tim was lying on the couch reading the college catalog when the phone rang. "Taylor residence."

"Tim?"

"Jules. How's college?"

"What are you doing at our h-wait, I'm sorry mom and I talked about it, I've just been swamped. How are you?"

"Good."

"Tim, how are you?"

The only sound was the hum on the phone line.

"Tim?"

"You know Julie, everyone has things they lock away and never tell anyone about ever. Not even their shrink. I told your parents, one of the worst parts about prison is you don't have any control over anything, including yourself. One really bad time I was on the medical wing for a checkup and we went on lockdown. Which in this case meant me and 18 other guys in a five by ten foot cell for four hours? I've never been claustrophobic, but that flipped a switch in me. How do you like college?"

Julie sighed. "I—I guess it's not what I thought it would be like, but I don't really know what I thought it would be like apart from being on my own and away from mom and dad and Gracie and the puppies. Has my dad grumbled about how Payton being in love with you yet?"

"No, he hasn't said anything. I crashed a couple hours after I got her and slept all day and night, getting acclimated to the outside world. Your dad's gonna have me prepping the field Thursday so, I guess I'll get into a routine." He signed. "How are you and Seven doing?"

More humming on the line.

"Jules?"

"We broke up; I mean I broke up with him last Thanksgiving."

"That's too bad. Do you still talk at all?"

"Yeah I wen—I mean we email every so often and call each other I once a week. You didn't know that we broke up?"

"I never heard it directly from anyone; he and I talked about you when we were out hunting. Well, we talked about me and Lyla and you and Seven."

"What did he say?"

"Basically he said that he was staying in Dillon because of you because he loved you, because he loves you instead of going off to whatever art school he applied to, and then you were applying to all of these colleges on the other side of the country and he was mad about it, but he said that you never asked him to stay." Tim sighed. "It's like you kind of waved away what he gave up to stay with you."

"So he left because the colleges I applied to weren't all in Texas? I'm the only reason that he left?"

"No. There isn't one reason why he left. Or two, it's a bunch of things. Maybe he left partly because he loves you so much." Julie sighed. "You sigh a lot."

"Yeah, and I also roll my eyes a lot. It drives my dad nuts. Speaking of that, aren't you supposed to be at work?"

"I was going to start interning for your dad, but your parents want me to take a couple of days, I'm gonna work on the field Thursday and start working at Buddy's Saturday. And I'm kinda working right now, I'm watching Gracie and the dogs, and yes I'm getting paid just like you do."

"And Payton is snuggled up right next to you."

"Actually she's asleep on my stomach. Look, do you know anything about Dillon Community College, about the teachers and stuff?"

"I thought you tried the college thing and didn't like it."

"It's more complicated than that. Your mom has been nudging me about taking a class to help with structure."

Julie snorted. "'Nudging.' Just like she did with Tyra. I would pretty much avoid the art department at least this one guy, I can't remember his name, I don't even know if he teaches there anymore. Matt was kind of his apprentice, more like his slave. Do you have a catalog?"

"Your mom got one and the forms. I've been looking through the classes."

"Does anything jump out at you?"

Tim mumbled. "Woodworking."

"What?"

"Woodworking."

"Okay, that's good."

"Good for what?"

"Well, you have that land, right? Which I'm guessing you bought because you thought how nice it would be to sit on a porch and look at it, but there isn't a house or anything on it. And you already know how to work with tools, Riggins Rigs and all. This isn't that much different."

"Is there some point where you actually say that I want to build the house or whatever it is by myself and this class might help with that?"

"No, you already did that, that's why it jumped out at you. Look at it like this; it's a tool or a skill for your toolbox. You can work on cars and you can make furniture or build a house. Look, I'm sure my mom said pretty much the same thing to you."

"Both of 'em have, I don't know, I'm starting out at the bottom."

"So was Tyra and look where she is."

"Are you worried about motivation?"

"More like I'll get bored and drop out again."

"Maybe it's because you look at it as four months of classes or however long it is. You're paying for it, right?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, then what you could do is figure out how much each class costs. That way if you wake up and don't feel like going to class one day you say to yourself, 'Well, that's twenty dollars or however much it is wasted.' That's a few six-packs of beer."

"I'm not allowed to drink while I'm living here."

"And yet you're gonna be working at a bar."

"Yeah, I'm sure your parents have had that discussion a couple of times and they touched on it the other day. And you know that if you keep poking me about it I'm liable to drink just because and that means I'm sleeping in the bed of my truck on my land."

"My mom wouldn't do that, and I don't think she'd let my dad do that. They want you to succeed and you know they'll do as much as they can to help. But you have to do the work."

"I know. Hey, you ever talk to Landry?"

"I get emails from him every couple of weeks; he said he's taking 24 credits so he doesn't have a lot of free time. Do you want me to send you his email address?"

"Well, that'd be tricky since I don't have one. I'll ask your mom if it's okay if I set one up on the computer here."

"Tim, you don't have to ask."

"Remember what happened with the cable last time I stayed here, you're mom wasn't happy."

"Aunt Shelly got a kick out of it."

"Your aunt gets a kick out of anything that annoys your dad. Why did you call here right now, you know your parents are at school."

"I wanted to talk to you, to find out if it was true, that you're actually staying at our house, and to see how you're feeling. You mentioned claustrophobia; you know you can talk to my mom about it, about what happened to you in prison."

"Jules I—"
"You can. She's not going to judge you. But if you don't feel comfortable, you can ask her and she can find a therapist or counselor for you."

"Which costs money, which I have very little of right now and probably for a while."

"Not everything is set in stone. You can talk about and explain your situation. And you don't have to go every week; it can be once a month, whatever you need. Look, I've gotta go to class."

"Yeah."

"Hey, I'm happy you're out and that you've got a place to stay and I look forward to watching you and Gracie play dress up when I'm home on break."

Tim laughed. "Yeah, that's probably not gonna happen. It was good to talk to you Jules."